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The Dayton community gathered Tuesday night, Dec. 2, at Chabad Center Dayton to remember all who fell in the Mumbai, India, terror attack. Staff photo by Jim Noelker.Click to enlarge

OAKWOOD — At a memorial service Tuesday evening, Dec. 2, Dayton Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin recalled the lives of slain Chabad representatives Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28, who were killed Nov. 27 during a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.

Husband and wife hosted a large cast of characters at their Chabad House, tucked far away from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets, Klatzkin said.

Klatzkin, who visited the young rabbi in August, was to return to the city in India this week.

"My memories of Gavi and Rivka were very brief but very wonderful," he said, noting that Rabbi Holtzberg, who also led a congregation in there, knew how to improvise. Faced with a number of French-speaking tourists at the dinner table and not knowing French, he led them in a rendition of Le Marseillaise, the national anthem.

"He was a person happy to bring all types of people together," Klatzkin said.

Others cut down in the attack were commemorated as well during the memorial service at Chabad Center of Dayton, 2001 Far Hills Ave., that drew 80 visitors. In all, 190 candles were lit to represent the dead.

The Holtzbergs' 2-year-old son, Moshe, was snatched up and saved by his nanny hours before Indian commandos stormed their building, also known as the Nariman House, in the touristy neighborhood of Colaba.

Israel's Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press that nine hostages, including the Holtzbergs, were killed there.

Rabbi Nochum Mangel, director of Chabad of Greater Dayton, knew Holtzberg's family in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y., where many in the Hasidic Jewish movement live.

He called on everyone to do a good deed for others as a way to commemorate the dead.

After the memorial service, he said the Mumbai outreach center will be rebuilt, and a new rabbi has already been selected from among six volunteers.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.